Volunteers band together to clean Stony Creek Lake shoreline

Rebecca Mahalak of Warren holding fishing line that she picked up along the banks of Stony Creek Lake. The fishing line is dangerous to eagles that are nesting in the park. (The Macomb Daily/DAVID DALTON)

About 60 volunteers showed up on a beautiful Saturday afternoon at Stony Creek Metropark to wallow around in the muck and dying vegetation along the shoreline of Stony Creek Lake.

The mid-October weather was a portrait of Indian summer. And the volunteers were there to pick up garbage. But there was no place they’d rather be.

“It’s just the right thing to do,” said Jim Williams of Ferndale, who took to his kayak to get into the lake to pick up debris.

Williams and the rest of the volunteers were at the Shelby Township Metropark as part of a comprehensive shoreline cleanup organized by the Stony Creek Nature Center, in partnership with the Clinton River Watershed Council. They focused on removing fishing line, plastic rings and other wildlife hazards, in addition to any other debris.

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According to Ruth Glass, Stony Creek’s volunteer bird expert said approximately 800 pounds of trash was removed from the area including “thousands” of yards of fishing line. The north and south dams were the worst locations for fishing line, and most line was found where fishing is prohibited in the park.

The cleanup was organized after one of the park’s new resident bald eagles became entangled in fishing line in September, but the timing could not have been better since the lake level has been lowered about 6 feet to make repairs to the South Dam at the south end of the park. The low water levels provided a unique chance to pick up debris from previously inaccessible locations in the lake. The lake will be restored to its normal wintertime levels after the dam repairs have been made.

“In this one-day cleanup, we can do what it would take our staff a month, month and a half to do,” said Charlie Shelton, a Metropark naturalist and historian. “But it also it gives us great exposure. We get this group of people who are concerned about the park, concerned the eagles and other wildlife we have here, and they become ambassadors for us of goodwill to rest of the community and let them know what we have to offer here in this park.”

Volunteers were split into seven groups and placed in strategic locations around the lake, primarily in places heavily used by fishermen. It didn’t take long for some to reel in substantial collections of fishing line.

Sean Mahalak of Warren collected what he estimated was about 100 yards of thick, 30-pound test fishing line from the base of a tree at the North Dam. The tree would normally be against the water line with its branches extending out over the water, a popular location for fishermen and fish to hang out. He and his family were filling up bags with garbage in only about 10 minutes over a 100-yard stretch of shoreline.

“I’ve never been here with the water this low. It’s amazing. Usually, you can’t fish along the shoreline here, and now you can see all the fishing line stuck up there in the trees,” Mahalak said. “We saw the stuff in the newspaper about the eagle, and I told my family, ‘let’s get out there.’ I didn’t even know there were eagles in the park. This park is for our children in the future. We need to keep it clean. This stuff is not biodegradable. And the wildlife can get tangled in it. It’s really sad.”

Glass, who spearheaded the volunteer drive, was thrilled with the turnout.

“The park staff just can’t handle all of the maintenance that needs to be done, so it’s important that we chip in and help out,” she said. “We hope this makes the shoreline a much safer habitat for special inhabitants like the nesting bald eagle pair and all of the hundreds and hundreds of shorebirds and waterfowl that migrate through here or call this home year-round. The volunteers really appreciated that we did this. They are looking forward to doing another one in the future.”

Rob Weir of Washington Township is an avid nature photographer, frequently making Stony Creek flora and fauna the subject of his hobby. He felt it was only right to give back.

“This park means a lot to me,” he said. “It’s important to get this kind of stuff that’s not biodegradable out of here to protect the wildlife.”